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Disclaimer: You know that I don't own A: TLA and the Japanese and Filipino ghosts mentioned here. The only things I own are this plot box in my head and a rough chibi sketch of Katara and Season 2 Zuko. Anyway, where did I put those again? And I forgot; if you want to see my ugly drawing, please don't hesitate to PM me.
Chapter 7: Night of Apparition
Great Hall of the Fire Nation Palace…
"That fight was awesome! I wish I had a videotape of that fight!" Aang said, as he drunk a whole bowl of crab and corn soup. "That tired me a lot," the Fire lord said as he stretched out his joints. "I thought I was doing the 'Dance of Death' with Mai." Jin smiled.
"Ty Lee could take my bending away but she can't take my spunk away." Katara smirked as she saw Sokka greedily get another steak. "What? Men need their food!" Sokka said as everyone looked at him.
"You should have done it in a more civilized way." Toph crossed her arms and continued eating the leg of ham in front of her. "Toph, thank you for the things you did in our fight with Ty Lee. I must admit that she took my bending away but she only pressed my pressure points half of the time needed to block one's chi." Chie said to Toph, who was beside her.
"I heard the clanking of your sword. The fires you created with that katana were roaring like your fighting spirit. You're a worthy general." Toph praised. "Thanks!" Chie returned to gobbling down the lamb chops.
That night…
The whole gang had a nice hot bath in their private bathrooms. They needed to soothe their aching joints from the intense fighting.
Toph's room
"That bath with the lily petals was so refreshing. I never thought that Fire Nation hot tubs were soothing to the body." Toph remarked as she entered her room, fully dressed.
Toph went to bed in a plain yellow Korean dress. She pulled out her headband and let her hair go wild. She pulled down the golden curtains from the bedposts and canopy as she laid her head on the soft mattress. The pillows were colored gold and her bedcovers and blanket were yellow. She kept her headband at a side table. She listened to the flickering of the flames that lulled her to a good sleep. Her unseeing eyes smiled as she slept in a warm and comfortable room. The windows were closed, Toph didn't even think of opening them.
In Chie's room…
"My back hurt a while ago. It doesn't now. At least a bath with chamomile and lavender oils did the trick. Lighting the aromatic candles was good too." Chie said as she stretched her lithe form on her bed. She let down her shoulder-length glossy black hair.
She was wearing a knee-length, red top with a black sash on her waist. She also wore loose, flared black trousers under her robe. From the canopy of her bed were red curtains. She arranged them in a way that they would frame the view of the doorway but not obstruct her. She placed her katana at the side of her bed so as not to feel helpless. She kept a silver cross necklace at the side table as she slept together with her ponytail. She was in a room with red bedcovers and fluffy black pillows. The fire in the hearth seemed to roar vigorously. Her windows were half-open, but a good amount of wind came in her room.
In Sokka and Katara's room…
"I am so tired even though I didn't fight much. Maybe caring for my sister did it." Sokka said to himself. "Sokka, I'm taking the bed. You're taking the floor." Katara interrupted his thinking process. Of course, Sokka cannot argue so he slept on the silver-carpeted floor with a sleeping bag and a pillow.
Katara was amazed by the size of the bed. It had a wooden canopy and bedposts. It must be antique. Silver drapings, pillows and bedcovers dominated the sleeping place. The fire in the room was only small, because waterbenders don't like fire quite a lot. She was wearing a blue kimono and Sokka was wearing his usual Water tribe clothes. Katara let down her hair loops and her braids. "Well, good night, Sokka." But the only thing that answered her was a loud snore. Katara shook her head in dismay and put her waterskin in a side table. She let the curtains stay up. The windows were opened but a screen to deter mosquitoes and flies were there.
In Aang's room…
"The salt bath…ah, I want to do it again tomorrow morning. I wonder how Appa's doing. I hope he's having a good night sleep like what I'm gonna have." The Avatar straightened out his monk's robe and blew some air into the hearth to make the fires stronger.
The room had yellow and red objects, mostly. The drapes on the bed were red but the pillows and covers were in different shades of yellow. Aang chose not to close the drapes. He placed his staff on the side of his bed to be ready when something suspicious comes. As Aang placed his bald head on the pillow, he sighed comfortably as the sandman dropped sand into his eyes. The fire was cheerful in the room. There was a vase of panda lilies in the other side table of the bed. The windows were opened to let the cool breeze in.
In Jin and Zuko's room…
"I'm so tired. Help me out here, Jin." Zuko said as he plopped down on the red sheets and pillows. The drapes were flying in the wind like the trees outside. "You really look tired, Zuzu. Here, let me give you a massage but you have to pay me afterwards." Jin said with a faux look of worry in her face. The fire in the room was roaring like crazy. The Fire lord placed his broadswords at the side table.
"Holy crap, Jin, I'm not paying you. As my fiancée, of course you have to do it for free," the young Fire lord said, propping himself on his left elbow. He took off his red shirt and threw it at the floor by his bed. He missed the little table. He just let his clothes fly in the room and land anywhere possible. He'll fix it anyway tomorrow morning. Jin smiled as she straightened out some wrinkles in her green nightgown.
"You're so gullible. I don't expect you to pay me!" Jin started rubbing his back in a steady, circular motion. "That's better. Keep on." She continued applying bits of pressure to his sore muscles at every stroke of her thumb and palm. He sighed with comfort as she moved her soft hands to his shoulders. Using her index and middle fingers, Jin rubbed the part of his shoulders here the bone was located. "You could be a masseuse for a living." Zuko joked, "Unless you become my wife."
"I'd rather be the Fire lady than a masseuse anyway." Jin laughed as she went to rub his arms. She held his strong arms and was shocked when he suddenly pulled her down and he was on top. She blushed because she knew what was going to happen. He went down on her and leaned in for a hot, steamy, passionate kiss.
"So, you were just feigning tiredness, huh?" "Yeah, I did feign. Well, maybe we can do this some other time. Will be that okay with you?" "It will be. I'm drained of my entire chi, I guess." He gave her a soft kiss on the cheek and pulled down the maroon sheet over her. "Good night, my love." "Good night, Zuzu." He embraced her tightly as they closed their tired eyes.
In the middle of the night…
Toph was sleeping soundly until vibrations near her suddenly floated out of nowhere. Lady Bei Fong's sweet slumber was roused when her hands touched a thick, oozing liquid. It came from the canopy of the bed and it also stained the bedposts. It was red, smelly, and thick and it oozed like crazy. The Blind Bandit wasn't having her monthly visitor and she didn't have serious wounds.
She smelled the liquid and backed away. It smelled like decomposing material. She licked the liquid then took the sheets and wiped it off her tongue. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!" she screamed loudly heard by all of the rooms in that hall.
Sokka took his boomerang along with him. Katara sleepily took her waterskin and went outside of their room. "Who's screaming at three in the morning?" Katara said, groggy.
Chie was roused by the loudness of the sound. She muttered curse words under her breath. She took her katana, wore her slippers and grunted. She wore her hair in a decent half-ponytail, took her silver cross necklace and marched outside.
Aang knew Toph's scream anywhere. He abruptly took his staff and ran out of the room just to look for her.
Zuko and Jin were sleeping soundly until they heard the bloodcurdling scream. "Aww…fuck," he muttered while wearing his shirt. "Wake up, Jin. I think there's a robbery going on." Jin handed Zuko his broadswords and they went to Toph's room while rubbing their eyes.
At Toph's room…
Everybody charged into the room. They saw blood everywhere, on the walls, on the ceiling, on the floor, on the bed. Toph was huddling up inside the bed. The sheets were soaked in blood. Chie cut the curtains open with her katana. Toph wore her headband with fear.
"Toph! Are you okay?" Katara embraced Toph and led her away from the bloody bed. "Sure, I'm fine. Why is my bed covered in blood? I don't have a monthly visitor!" Toph shivered as the group went around. "Everyone, look at the wall. Read the writings. They're written in blood!" Sokka warned, "Die, Fire lord. Die…Die…Die!" Jin said as she read the writings.
"Crap! The palace is haunted by some idiotic ghost? Let's get this over with!" Zuko took his broadswords as they searched the palace. "Come on! As if ghosts are real!" Chie leaned on a bookshelf outside Toph's room. Suddenly, the bookshelf opened up to reveal a secret passage. She winced as her bottom hit the floor. "Dammit." Chie stood up.
"Are we going in?" Aang asked, "Fire lord Scarface, light the way." Zuko made a flame that went ahead of them as they entered the dark stairway. As soon as all of them entered the tunnel, the bookshelf closed. Katara tried to kick the shelf, "Oww! Urgh!" she muttered.
Sokka hugged his knees and went into a fetal position and started whimpering as he swung back and forth. "Coward." Toph crossed her arms. "Stand up, Sokka. We have to know what the hell is happening." Chie said in a commanding stance. Sokka stood up shivering and stayed close to his younger sister.
When they reached the bottom of the staircase, they found a torch-lit hallway that was 20 times taller than they were. It seemed to have no end. Zuko let go of his flame as it disappeared. "It's so scary. Why do they have skeletons chained here?" Katara whimpered, "This must've been a secret dungeon." Jin said.
"I feel something coming!" Toph said as her foot moved. The gang got their weapons ready then suddenly, it was just a rat. "Phew! I thought that was something to be scared of." Sokka wiped the sweat off his brow. "Wait! I hear heavy footsteps. Get ready!" Chie said, making an orange inferno on her sword. Suddenly, the scent of fresh blood inhabited the air.
Then, a headless ghost came out of the hallway. It seemed to look for its head or some other head. It was the source of the blood! As it came forward, Toph was terrified as Katara described to her what the ghost looked like.
"It's a Kubikajiri! It's found when it is late already. It feasts on the heads of the dead and the living. If we don't want to get headhunted, we'd better fight!" Toph said, with worry. "I'm taking care of that!" Jin went in first and summoned boulders as they simultaneously hit the creature. Boulders kept on hitting.
Chie tied her cross necklace to her head and concentrated as she made flames. White and blue comets with crosses inside whirled over to the kubikajiri. It hit the ghost square in the heart. The ghost was burned in holy flame and boulders. It became only a speck of ash. The ghost was not given a chance to hurt them.
"That was easy. We have to stay as a group. It is the only way for us to survive. If you hear anything strange, tell us." Zuko said, as he led the group through the torch-lit hallway. The walls were made of obsidian and volcanic sand. Jin and Aang were by his side. Sokka and Toph guarded the back. Katara and Chie were at either side. They went through the wide hallway until Aang hit a large white wall.
"Oww! My nose!" Aang grunted as the group went to all sides but the same happened. "What should we do with this wall?" "It's a nurikabe. It will fall on us and crush us if we keep trying to pass through. My aunt said that we should strike the bottom of these walls with a stick in order to get out." Katara said.
Aang took his staff and whacked the bottom of the wall hard. He whacked the other walls that surrounded them. The walls crumbled into rubble as the gang continued to wander the hallways but they were going nowhere. They kept going to the same place even if they kept going around and around.
"I think we're coming back to the same place over and over again. I'll put my shoe here. Let's see!" Sokka put his shoe on the floor. When they walked again, they found Sokka's shoe in the same place.
"Wait a second! We're being haunted by a tikbalang, a TIHK-baaaaaa-laaahng!" Sokka said. "It's the reverse of a centaur. It lives on banyan trees. It confuses people who are not careful. It can also make illusions. We should be careful. These creatures are really playful and if you're a woman, he can rape you!" Sokka added. Jin embraced Zuko tightly due to fear. Toph embraced Sokka and so did Katara. Chie was standing alone, unafraid.
"We can stop this creature if we put on our dresses and robes backward. Everybody close your eyes as we put our garments backward." Sokka said as everyone shut their eyes as they put their clothes on backward. The illusions stopped and they were now heading the right way. The tikbalang had been laughing its head off in the shadows when he saw their backward dresses and robes.
After that, they put their clothes right back on. They came to the end of the hallway. It was a large, wooden door with a metal ring as a knob. Toph kicked the door open. They came to the wrong place. It was filled with witches who brought along voodoo dolls that looked exactly like them. There were thirteen of them. They were ugly old women with warts in their faces and needles.
"Holy crap! They're mangkukulams! Sorcerers, witches! Let's just make them not torture us and get out of here!" Jin shivered.
"Jin! Get a hold of yourself! Look at what I have here!" Zuko said, holding all the dolls of them. "What the hell did you do, Zuzu?!" "I burned those ugly witches when you guys were stunned!" they took off all the things found on the dolls and they put it in their pockets.
They wandered into the large room. In the middle was a cauldron filled with some weird potion formula. They found another door. What could be behind it? They opened the metal door and found themselves in a forest. But the forest was scary and filled with banyan trees and other creepy trees.
Zuko unsheathed his broadswords and brandished them. He put a large blue flame in one sword as their torch in the dark forest. The moon was full yet so scary. They were vigilant of wherever they had to go. They heard the flapping of bat's wings. A strong wind followed after hearing the bat's wings. They leaned on a wide tree to hide.
"Shh! be silent, everyone. I think there's a manananggal here. It's a Philippine vampire. It separates from the waist during sundown. Wings with a span of 5-7 meters sprout from their backs. Their lower body is left somewhere in their houses. They may look like normal people during the morning, but they're hideous and bloodthirsty during night. They have long tongues and they love eating liver, which by the way, I hate eating. They can only be defeated by putting salt, vinegar or chili peppers on their lower half. That way, they cannot return to their lower halves and the sunlight will kill them. These creatures are also afraid of fire." Chie shivered at the thought of liver. She shone an inferno over the forest.
"Remind me never to sleep in that room, ever again!" Toph screamed. "Toph, you dumb-dumb! The manananggal will find us!" "I think it already did, Chie." Aang looked sharply at what was in front of them. It was a woman, an ugly one.
The creature had bloodshot eyes. Her face was as pale as the cold moonlight. Her mouth had thousands of fangs all colored by blood. Her wire-like strands of hair drooped to the forest floor. She wore a torn black dress. Her bloody intestines trailed from her upper body. She licked her face with her long, thread-like tongue. Her wings were long and were as leathery as bat's wings. She gave them a venomous smile. Her eyes scanned them from head to toe.
"I think that the handsome young man will do as my breakfast, lunch and dinner." She pointed a clawed finger to Zuko. "I'll admit it. I poured the blood on Lady Bei Fong's bedroom and my name is Yala." Toph was surprised that she knew who she was.
"If you want him, you have to go through me, through us first!" Jin stomped her foot. Chie kept her silver cross necklace on her forehead. She summoned a large wall of holy blue flame as the gang ran away. They were panting as they went through the forest, trying to escape the fast-flying manananggal. She landed on the floor in front of the group and she smiled.
"Found you now!" she cackled loudly. Toph sent a flying boulder to her wing. "That was a cheap shot, isn't it, blind one?" she laughed sinisterly. "Oww!" the creature winced as a whip of water slapped and wounded her face. Katara smiled as she whipped the creature with excruciating grace and skill. "Come back here!" Yala flew after their retreating forms.
"We have to find the creature's lower half!" Jin said, "Look out!" the whole group stopped in their tracks when they found a pile of mango fruit and branches that fell out from the tree. They kicked out the fruits, branches and dried leaves. They found a bloody thing underneath the branches. It was the manananggal's lower half.
"We don't have salt, pepper or vinegar? What should we do?" Sokka asked, paranoid. "Aswangs and manananggals are afraid of fire. We have to try and burn them. The manananggal may come here to look for it. Sunrise is nearing!" Chie said as she saw the sky.
"Chie! Let's burn it, now!" Zuko released lightning and blue flame as he diced the lower half using his daos. Chie used orange and blue infernos with her katana simultaneously as they burned the lower half into ashes. The lower half was reduced to dust.
"Toph! Look out!" Aang said as he shielded her. The manananggal looked at the group furiously. They distanced away from her in the fear of being bitten and turned into these ugly creatures themselves.
"Where did you put my lower half?" "We burned it." Jin gamely answered. "Why you…" the manananggal's sentence was cut off as the sun rose in its beauty. It was afraid of the sun. Zuko and Chie blazed giant flames that engulfed the manananggal as it received triple burns, including those from the sun.
The forest disappeared and in place, it became the Fire Nation Palace Garden. It became a very peaceful day. They found out that there were many people that had died in this palace. Now they have exorcised and pleased the spirits, the palace never heard shouts or screams again.
-TDYSG
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